Category: Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) is an important and ongoing strategy of any HR plan. Ensuring that your company supports hiring, engaging, and retaining diverse workers with varied backgrounds will set your company up for long-term success and an increased bottom line. This topic offers the latest strategies for talent management, key insights from diversity leaders, case studies on D&I in the workplace, and more.

Apps, attitudes pushing employers to walk the walk on social responsibility

More and more employers tout diversity and inclusion efforts in their recruiting strategies, but just putting on a socially responsible face may not be enough to entice today’s high-potential jobseekers. Not only are prospective employees interested in working for employers that are good corporate citizens, they have a plethora of tools available to make sure […]

Religious accommodations: Be careful after same-sex marriage ruling

by Brent Siler Unless you have been hiding under a rock the past few weeks, you know that the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in all 50 states when it issued its Obergefell decision on June 26. Much of the discussion about the ruling has revolved around its effect on people with sincere religious […]

An EEOC update: Where are we now?

by Christopher J. Pyles The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been celebrating its own birthday this year, marking its 50th anniversary. In August, the EEOC published “American Experiences Versus American Expectations,” a report documenting changes in employee demographics since 1965 and using data through 2013 as an update to a 1977 report titled “Black […]

Managing an injured employee

by Al Vreeland Few things create more headaches in the HR suite than an employee who is injured on the job and then resists returning to work. HR’s headaches are usually centered at the intersection of state workers’ compensation laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). A […]

Millennial women and work: Tackling the recruit and retain challenge

Employers can turn up reams of research on millennial employees. They’re generally considered well-educated, tech-savvy workers who crave flexibility and collaboration. But the research rarely focuses on millennial women in the workplace, so employers are left wondering just how they can most effectively recruit, motivate, retain, and get the most out of their female millennial […]

Preventing workplace bullying: Start with training and a good policy

by Sue Woods Generally, workplace bullying can be defined as repeated unreasonable actions directed toward an employee or a group of employees that are intended to intimidate, degrade, or humiliate. In some cases, workplace bullying may involve misuse or abuse of power by supervisors or managers. In other cases, it may involve a group of […]

Training too weird even for Austin

by Mark R. Flora Perhaps you have already heard about the recent firestorm created during a diversity training session for city employees in, of all places, Austin, the capital of political correctness. The training was actually held in March, but the uproar followed an article in the Statesman in May. The hue and cry was […]

Long wait for Dodd-Frank standards turns out to be much ado about nothing

by H. Mark Adams “Much ado about nothing” is just one literary turn of phrase that comes to mind when considering the initial uproar over Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the long wait for its implementing regulations. Here’s some background to add some perspective to that observation.  […]

Interactions with Asperger’s: Discrimination, wrongful discharge claims go to trial

Soon after an employee provided his employer with information about his Asperger’s syndrome, it informed him that his contract wouldn’t be renewed because “Your Asperger’s got in the way of your ability to interact with your boss, and we are tired of it.” Afterward, the employee brought claims of wrongful termination and discrimination under the […]

Gender identity in the workplace: Employers face emerging discrimination issue

When the Olympian and reality TV star the world knew as Bruce Jenner announced this spring that he identifies as female rather than male, the resulting publicity put a new employment issue into focus: Controversy surrounding gender identity is more than fodder for reality TV. It also poses workplace discrimination questions as well as practical […]